Punishing the mentally ill: “It depends”

From The Onion, via Omni Brain, we have the fictional tale of a court that can only say ‘it depends’.

Isn’t it great how they injected some philosophy of punishment into the story?

The case, which challenged the extent to which the Eighth Amendment permits the execution of a mentally ill death row inmate who has a factual awareness of the reason for his punishment but does not comprehend its retributive nature, was described in Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion as being “way too tough to call.”